REBUILDING LIFE SANS STIGMA

Acid attack is still a gruesome crime againstwomen and it shows the brutal face of the male-dominated society. Victims of acid violence are

attacked for many reasons. Sometimes they result fromdomestic or land disputes, dowry demands or revenge.The most common reason behind these attacks is ayoung girl rejecting a marriage proposal or one-sidedlove. Few days back a 22-year-old woman wasallegedly gang-raped, forced to drink acid and laterstrangled to death in Baheri area in Bareilly, 60 milesfrom the village in Badaun where two girls were gang-raped and hanged from a tree. Acid was detected fromthe stomach of the victim and her face was mutilated bypouring acid and petrol to conceal her identity.

The easy availability of acids mostly used inmanufacturing and processing cotton, rubber and sugarindustries makes it a handy tool for the attackers totake their revenge in a brutal way. Thousands of casesare recorded from around the world every year. Inspiteof the fact that many cases gounreported due to the victimʼsfear of facing further socialstigma and enmity. This corrosivesubstance is capable of decayingmetal in high concentration, andcan cause the facial tissues tomelt in the affected areas whichlead to permanent scarring. Weakrule of law and cultural inequalitiesbetween genders have contributedto increasing incidents of acidattacks.

To regulate the sale anddistribution of acid, the Governmentof India proposed several measuresto restrict its easy availability.According to the guidelines, no onewill be able to purchase acid withoutsubmitting a photo ID and theshopkeepers who sell acid will haveto obtain a license for its sale. Themain point which arises here is thateven after one year of enactment ofthis new law have the acid attacksstopped or the graph of such incidents have gonedown? An Acid attack victim suffers physical,psychological and economic consequences. Itbecomes difficult for a victim to get a job to earn herlivelihood. All these factors sometimes lead todepression and in many cases the victim finallycommits suicide.

Any attack on a woman – whether it is rape,domestic violence, honour killing, dowry violence, acid

EDITORIAL

Wewrite to: editor@womansera.com

6 Woman’s Era ● July (First) 2014

throwing, human trafficking, forced prostitution, sexualharassment or forced abortion – is an attack on herdignity. This shows the gender inequality in the mind ofsociety. Many debates have been held for years on thisbut what matters the most is the mindset of the people.

The new generation today, however, is very rationaland they value life. We have heroes who have acceptedan acid attack victims and moved on in their lives.Kanpur-based social activist Alok Dixit, 25, who runscampaigns on social media against “acid attack, spot ofshame” fell for Laxmi (an acid attack victim) and bothdecided to stay in a live-in relationship.

Recently, a boy named Gaurav married an acidattack victim Mohini against his familyʼs will. Thesedevelopments, show a kind of improvement and theacceptance behaviour of the society. Gaurav mighthave faced huge protest from his family and the societybut he didnʼt give up. He took the step forward andbecame an idol for the youth.

This impact of Gaurav can be seen at social mediawhere one photograph uploaded on Womansera pageof this couple crossed crores of hits within few days. But

there is lot more to do as manyincidents go unnoticed from mediaalso. If gender sensiti sation alongwith punish ments with properexecutions on such crimes occursin India then it lets us feel thatIndia could also be a country freefrom acid attacks on women.

Despite the many hardshipsthat they suffer, it is important toremember that acid attacksurvivors can rebuild their lives.It may sound easy but manypeople think that acid attackvictims can have no future. Withsupport, encoura ge ment andopportunities to learn newskills, they can be trained tohelp themselves, to find jobsand live well.

Actually majority of youthdo understand the violencephase of a broken or lostrelationship but there aresome perverted youth who

think women are like their personal property and crossall limits. Letʼs hope our society would be a better placefor all including women but it can only be achieved if thegovernments ensure proper enactment of laws andpunish the criminals. People like Gaurav are anexample that not only the laws needs to be stricter butalso we as the next generation should adopt the policyof acceptance.

Do click to Womansera on Facebook and see manysuch reports daily.

This post received more than 13 lakh likes, 50,000 comments,

45,000 shares and 2.5 crore hits in just 5 days and still coming.